National Petroleum Authority, Ghana

Exxon Mobil Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and two other oil companies will spend $1 billion to research and build a containment system to handle deep- water oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. Exxon, Shell, Chevron Corporation and ConocoPhilips will each give $250 million to establish a non-profit organization, the Marine Well Containment Company to produce and manage the equipment. The system will be designed and built over the next 12 to 18 months to handle spills of 100,000 barrels a day in waters as deep as 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), the companies said in a statement on Business Wire. The oil industry has been criticized by lawmakers in the U.S. for being unprepared to deal with deep-water accidents, following the explosion of BP Plc’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20. The blast killed 11 people, caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history and resulted in a six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. “For an incident in deeper waters with higher production levels, the response capability of containment and spill response is proven by this incident to be inadequate,” Jim Mulva, chief executive officer of ConocoPhillips, said in a phone interview. The four companies have been working with the U.S. government for six weeks on the project, Mulva said. The $1 billion plan may also aim to blunt punitive new government regulations on drilling.